Page 23 of Colt
“And if I’m not?”
“We’ll make sure he keeps his distance.” Graham’s voice was firm. “You don’t owe him anything, Lilac. Whatever you decide, I’ll make sure he respects it.”
I pushed back from the table so fast the chair legs scraped against the floor. I couldn’t sit still anymore—couldn’t contain the chaos swirling inside me. I walked to the window and pressed my forehead against the glass.
Outside, the street looked normal. Normal houses, normal lives, normal families. None of them knew that my entire existence had just been turned upside down.
A week ago, I’d been a single mother with no past. Now I had a husband I didn’t remember, sons who were suddenly someone else’s too, and a history I was only beginning to understand.
My hands pressed flat against the window frame, anchoring me. “I need time,” I said finally, my breath fogging the glass. “To think. To process.”
“Take all the time you need.” Betty rose and came to stand beside me. “Whatever you decide, we’ll support you.”
I nodded, but my mind was spinning. Graham’s words kept echoing.His whole face would light up when you walked into a room.
Somewhere underneath the angry, hateful man I’d encountered was the person I’d married. The person I’d loved enough to build a life with.
I just didn’t know if that person still existed. Or if I had the courage to find out.
Chapter 10
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— Colt —
Ihadn’t slept much in a week. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw them. Lilac’s face when I’d grabbed her arm—the flash of pure terror. Luca’s tears as he swung at me, shouting that I was a bad man. Knox’s quiet fear as he tried to pull his brother back.
My wife. My sons. And I’d made them all afraid of me.
I’d been getting through the days the way you get through something you can’t undo—one hour at a time, barely functioning, going through the motions of eating and breathing and showing up. My brothers had noticed. I could feel them treading carefully around me, keeping the clubhouse quiet, running interference so nobody came at me with anything I couldn’t handle. They hadn’t said much. Neither had I.
The morning Dutch finally came to find me, I was on what might have been my hundredth lap across the room, trying to figure out how the hell I was supposed to fix this.
“Betty called.” He set a cup of coffee in front of me. “Lilac’s agreed to see you.”
“When?”
“This afternoon. Betty’s place.” Dutch sat down across from me, his expression serious. “She’s not happy about it, brother. You’ve got a lot of ground to make up. We all do.”
I looked up at him.
“Don’t give me that look. We all followed your lead, Colt. Called her names. Cornered her on the street. Made her feelhunted in her own town.” Dutch’s jaw tightened. “We didn’t ask questions.”
“You didn’t know—”
“Neither did you. But we still did it.” He shook his head. “Indira read me the riot act. Not about getting it wrong. About those boys standing there watching their mother get cornered by us and called names. She said it doesn’t matter what we believed someone did or didn’t do. You don’t handle it like that in front of children. She’s right.”
I didn’t have an answer for that.
“So yeah.” Dutch leaned forward. “The club needs to make amends, brother. But this isn’t just about you apologizing. This is about proving to that woman—and those boys—that you’re not the man you’ve been acting like. That’s going to take time. Patience. A hell of a lot of eating crow.”
“I know,” I said again. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”
Dutch studied me for a long moment. Then he nodded. “Indira’s coming with you.”
“What? Why?”
“Because you need someone who can keep you in check.” He held up a hand when I started to protest. “You’ve been running on anger and hurt for years, Colt. That’s not something you just turn off. Indira will make sure you don’t say or do something that makes things worse.”
